Nepal Earthquake Round Up {UPDATED 2}
This is my second attempt at a round up post of various links on and about the devastation happening in Nepal, India, the Himalayas, and Tibet. Many are just a round up of links and lists to other in depth articles. As usual Google and Twitter are your go to places for the latest up dates.
I won’t comment on what a terrible tragedy this is. Anyone who doesn’t have a soul made of stone must realize how terrible things are in that region of the world. Things are being made worse by weather, the terrain, and, as always, the lack of governmental cohesion.
By now, of course, many of you will have heard the siren call of various agencies asking for donations. May I advise caution? Already there are reports of so-called Christian missionaries offering aid, but really seeking mass conversion. Can you say parasites?
To the links..
The latest from Al Jazeera. The people of Nepal are not impressed with their government’s efforts at relief. And they are not shy about it, either.
Thousands of displaced residents in the Nepali capital have expressed anger towards the government, as they face food and water shortages, a day after a magnitude 7.8 quake hit the country and killed more than 2,500 people.
As rescuers continue to dig through the rubble on Sunday, the densely-populated capital Kathmandu faces a “chaotic situation” with hospitals running out of medical supply, and thousands of people, who are camped in open air areas, are left hungry and thirsty, according to Al Jazeera reporters on the ground.
“A lot of people taking shelter outside in open spaces are without food or water,” Al Jazeera’s Subina Shrestha, who is in Kathmandu, said.
A really comprehensive report from The Wall Street Journal complete with maps and links. I love maps.
KATMANDU, Nepal—Residents of the earthquake-hit Nepalese capital huddled in the dark beneath plastic tarps in streets and parks Sunday night, after a day in which soldiers and police dug, often by hand, in the rubble of collapsed buildings to rescue survivors.
More than 2,400 people were confirmed dead after Saturday’s 7.8-magnitude quake, which devastated a broad swath of the Himalayan nation, severely damaging the historic heart of Katmandu, flattening remote villages and triggering an avalanche on Mount Everest.
Nepal was hit by aftershocks Sunday from the earthquake that has so far killed at least 2,200 people and injured 5,800. Eyewitness photos, videos, and accounts show the destruction in Nepal’s capital Kathmandu and on Mount Everest as survivors continue to fear for their safety and rescuers work to free victims from debris.
Here are some images and accounts from people on the scene.
A series of photographs and eyewitness accounts from on the ground. The devastation just takes your breath away.
A constantly updated post from Buzzfeed including many graphic photographs, emphasis on the graphic. So be warned. There is also much information on how the people of Nepal are responding to the havoc.
Rescue missions and aid material have started arriving in the country.
Seventeen people have been killed on Mt Everest by avalanches - the mountain’s worst-ever disaster.
Meanwhile a powerful aftershock was felt on Sunday in Nepal, India and Bangladesh, and more avalanches were reported near Everest.
The 6.7-magnitude tremor, centred 60km (40 miles) east of Nepal’s capital Kathmandu, sent people running in panic for open ground in the city.
I do love the BBC. Very comprehensive, with maps, (did I mention I love maps?), pointing out that the damage and deaths extend to Tibet and Bangladesh. Meanwhile, there have been avalanches at Mt. Everest, killing 17 climbers, destroying Base Camp, and stranding a currently unknown number up on the mountain.
At least four out of seven Unesco World Heritage sites in the Kathmandu valley - three of them ancient city squares - were severely damaged.
Nepali Times editor Kunda Dixit told the BBC that the destruction was “culturally speaking an incalculable loss”, although he said monuments could be rebuilt.
Photos taken from before and after the earthquake show just how much damage the earthquake has wrought in this South Asian nation, where rescue efforts continue and the full scale of the tragedy may not be known for days.
Two links that show that Nepal hasn’t just lost lives and buildings. The country has also suffered the loss of some of its most important historical and archaeological sites, which can probably never be rebuilt.
A timeline of the various recent earthquakes that have hit Nepal in the last century.
A snapshot of what is currently trending on Twitter under the hashtag #NepalEarthquake. There is a lot and some of the photos are painful to behold.
There is a whole list of videos available on YouTube. Most of it looks decent, although beware, the conspirators are beginning to make their presence known. More parasites.
Quakes that are closer to the surface carry more destructive power, and witnesses said the trembling and swaying of the earth went on for several minutes.
A bit of science. Shallow earthquakes are more dangerous than those deeper down. This article explains why.
More science. What makes earthquakes so dangerous. At least the people of Nepal and Northern India don’t have tsunamis to worry about. Avalanches and landslide are another matter entirely.
Acrid, white smoke rose above the nation’s most revered Hindu temple, where dozens of bodies were being cremated at any given time.
Aid groups received the first word from remote mountain villages — reports that suggested many communities perched on mountainsides were devastated or struggling to cope.
Survivors of the quake are struggling, amongst the ruins. Even those who have shelter are too terrified to remain inside, as aftershocks and another, smaller earthquake continue to rock the region. They lack food, shelter, water, and, of course, medical supplies. Aid agencies are rushing to help now that Kathmandu’s International Airport has reopened. But there are fears of a bottleneck building up, like the one that formed during relief efforts for the Haiti Earthquake. And, as mentioned at the top, the government of Nepal is not exactly covering itself with glory as it tries to help its people.
All disasters are local. Nepal, Kathmandu, and Everest are all together some of the top tourist destinations in Asia. So the reach of the disaster stretches all across the world. Several hundred Australians are missing, fate unknown. 3 Americans are known to be dead, including a Google executive who was killed by the avalanche on Everest. 61 people in India are dead, and the trains in Mumbai and Kolkata temporarily ground to a halt when the earthquake struck. 17 people are said to be dead in Chinese controlled Tibet.
Nepal
A raft of links from The Guardian, very comprehensive, with a video link to CCTV footage taken in Tibet when the earthquake hit.
They knew they were racing against the clock, but experts did not know where to start in a city with such staggering disadvantages.
Alas, what happened in Nepal was foreseen. Experts knew and steps were being taken to mitigate, but in a country so densely packed, with no real building codes, and not much of a government, little could really be done.
Earthquakes just don’t happen. There are always aftershocks, terrifying traumatized survivors, and hampering rescue efforts. Even as aid is beginning to arrive, the people in 5 countries are trying to come to grips with their new reality. History as well as lives have been lost. Mt. Everest has suffered its worst disaster in history, and no one is clear on how many climbers are still on the mountain. People round the world are donating, and the Nepalese Diaspora are rallying, but it is going to take a long, long time to put these shattered lives and countries back together.
UPDATE
It’s so scary that the time to process the earthquake had hit and the incoming avalanche was coming was only a few seconds. 18 people died in the avalanche
Some really frightening video of the avalanche that destroyed Everest Base Camp. Language most definitely NSFW.
A major shallow earthquake hit near Kathmandu in Nepal just before noon on Saturday local time. Between high population densities, intense prolonged shaking, unstable slopes, and inadequate buildings, this has the makings of a very nasty disaster.
A really, really in depth analysis of why the earthquake was so bad, and why it’s going to take a long, long time for the area to recover.
The disaster in Nepal is heartbreakingly close to the worst-case scenario for any region in the world vulnerable to earthquakes—a “nightmare waiting to happen,” in the words of one seismologist. As of Sunday afternoon, more than 2,500 people had died across the country—placing the earthquake among the two-dozen or so deadliest quakes worldwide over the past 40 years. The tragedy is only compounded when we consider how badly prepared the nation was for such an event, a fact that is sadly still common among developing nations in earthquake zones. In a world that’s getting better at preventing disasters, Nepal and other poor countries continue to bear the brunt of tragedy.
A bit of meta analysis here. While developed countries like Japan and the US have found ways to mitigate and even prevent earthquake damage and death, poor, undeveloped countries like Nepal and Haiti are falling further and further behind.
Nepal’s police say at least 3,617 people have been confirmed killed in Saturday’s earthquake, including 1,302 in the Kathmandu Valley alone.
In addition, 6,515 people were injured nationwide, the police department said in a Tweet.
So far 18 people have also been confirmed dead in an avalanche that swept through the Mount Everest base camp in the wake of the earthquake. Another 61 people were killed in neighboring India.
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Another update by The Associated Press. The official death toll now stands at 3,617, a horrendous number that is bound to climb.
New drone footage shows people gathering in large, frightened throngs throughout the city, rushing out of buildings and consolidating in the wide-open streets, dodging the crumbled debris of the buildings that used to stand there.
Incredible drone footage of the devastation in Nepal.